Friday, 29 July 2011

Back when the Captain America movie was first announced, there was a lot of debate in the Sinderson household about who exactly should play Mr. Steve Rogers. For obvious reasons all foreign actors were out of the picture. It would be too easy for Cap to slip into major cheese-mode so I thought you'd have to cast an actor with some serious acting chops. My choice was Michael C. Hall of Dexter and Six Feet Under fame (who I've attempted top sketch up top). I was skeptical but pleasantly surprised with Chris Evans' performance but I still wonder...

Hugo Weaving, on the other hand, was perfectly cast as the Red Skull. While I might have preferred the villain to be more grounded in reality, the Red Skull made for a sinister figure even before he took off his "human face". And what can be more sinister than a villain with the voice of Werner Herzog? After the movie I brought up the idea that Hugo Weaving seemed to be doing a Werner Herzog impersonation for the Red Skull. I believe my wife's response was, "You are probably the only person who thought that." This of course lead me to do a Google search where I found an interview with Hugo Weaving where he stated that he did indeed base the character's accent on Herzog. And for most everyone (including me) who doesn't know what the German director looks like, I have included him in the second sketch.

Wednesday, 13 July 2011

I'm channeling my inner Steve Ellis today. It all got very painterly. So this is a pencil sketch, photographed then painted over in good old Photoshop.

As of today DrawBridge is going weekly for the next couple of months. It's summertime and I know that we would all rather be locked in our gloomy studios working, than outside soaking up the sunshine or drawing just for the fun of it.
See you next Wednesday.

Sunday is her birthday so I am told.Lisa is a dancer and Aerialist who does some amazingthings on silks very high above the safety of a nice firm floor.She creates butterflies in my stomach. But in a good way!

I turned her into "Manga Lisa Dancer" who uses her silks to fight robot clowns from the circus of robot crime.

Every time I see Lisa Natoli defying the laws of Gravity and God through her aerialist performances I am in awe. I can type away at describing what Lisa does, but see for yourself at her site LISA'S BRIGHT IDEAS. She performs regularly, so keep your eye out for it.

Thursday, 7 July 2011

Made it with just a few minutes to spare! This is Kay from Akira, by the way, and I really should've drawn her holding a knife or a spoon or something a little less detailed. Anyway, I kept ink away from this one, just to see how neat I could keep the pencil marks. I made up for it with the color.

Akira ( and Katsuhiro Otomo ) taught me many things, possibly the most important of all those things was the value of stillness and calm.

I saw the movie in 1989, on a flakey NTSC VHS tape I got from a friend ( thanks Kiyo ). I think I watched it 5 times, then bought the soundtrack album ( brilliant!) and then all the albums by Geino Yamashirogumi. I have yet to see the movie in English, or even with subtitles. It doesn't need them.

Wednesday, 6 July 2011

So I was giving some thought to how Aquaman must move through the water. If he's swimming superfast underwater there are various friction effects that start to really make a difference to how things work, specifically Supercavitation which allows objects to move at extreme speeds through fluids by building a bubble of gas around themselves. In the case of Aquaman the gas would be steam caused by friction with the water. There are various naval torpedo systems in use that take advantage of this effect and scientists are theorising that a missile could achieve supersonic speed underwater. Of course something moving at that speed would be utterly devastating to anything anywhere near its flightpath...but never mind about that.

Aquaman is a character who really would have benefitted from being written and drawn by Jack Kirby.